“Take care of him,” she whispered, almost breathless, “take care of our only son.”

His father’s sobs intensified with the passing of his wife’s last breath. Lucius called for his mother, he begged his father to do something, but the scene continued without any response to him. It was like he wasn’t in the room. Lucius had finally broken down, in pain, with an overwhelming feeling loneliness overshadowing his very being.

The light of the room started to become overwhelmingly bright that he had started to feel it burning through his skin.

-----END OF FLASHBACK-----

Lucius Malfoy had woken from his dream only to realize a sharp pain in his chest. His vision was still overwhelmed by the light of the room but it didn’t bother more than the memory of his mother’s final goodbye. As his vision cleared, he could make out the elegant green drapes of his bedroom as it were highlighted by the minimal amount of light that shone through the drawn curtains. He could feel the heat running through him while beads of sweat continued to form on his immaculate forehead and while allowing the material of his shirt to stick against his smooth pale skin. He forced himself to sit up by the edge of his bed, his feet barely touching the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, something glinted from below him. He looked towards the direction from where it might’ve come from and his eyes fell upon a gold plated picture frame that was barely under his bed. He forced himself onto two feet and picked up the frame.

It held the picture of his mother, taken about two months before her passing. He admired her elegance and grace preserved in the photo, aided by his memory of the warmth of her love for him, had filled his chest with scorn and regret, darkness and grief. Without further hesitation, he threw the frame across the room, shattering the glass that protected a once precious memory. He cleaned himself up and headed down for class, ignoring the shattered pieces of his mother’s photograph.

With every passing second, his determination to get further from his bedroom grew even stronger. As he became more agitated with the cultivating angst within him, his legs picked up the pace and his strides increased. He looked back from where he came to see the amount of distance that was now between himself and the source of his pain and as he was just about to turn at the corner end of the hall, he felt his body make an impact against another person.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I uh-”

He caught his bag before it hit the ground then looked to see whom he had bumped into.

“You,” Lucius muttered.

“I’m so sorry,” Sage apologized nervously as she closed the book she was holding and slipped it into her bag, “I guess that should teach me not to read and walk huh?”

“You surely are making this a habit aren’t you?” Lucius accused, “that’s the same book wasn’t it? That you dropped on my head at the library? And now, you take another shot at me?

Sage scoffed, “excuse me? You bumped into me remem-”

“You must like me or something.”

“Ohhhkay, you’re accusations are becoming more and more ridiculous every single time you open your mouth. You should stop, please.”

With that said, she gathered what had been left of her ego and continued to walk, heading towards the opposite direction of Lucius’s path while he continued on his own. A few seconds after, to his surprise, he found himself looking back, watching as she walked away.

“Lucius, here you are.” A much taller Slytherin boy approached Lucius, followed by a short, stubby Slytherin boy.

“I was-” Lucius paused, falling right back into his agitated state as he thought about his mother, “I had a busy morning alright?”

The boys continued down the hallway, heading towards the Great Hall for breakfast. Students dodged their devilish glares and others tried to avoid even their unfriendly gaze. Lucius took his usual seat on the Slytherin table and helped himself to an appropriate serving of the available meal. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Narcissa, taking occasional glances at him until he left for his first class of the day.

It was the beginning of a long afternoon when her best friend approached her as she exited her Potions class. Rani, stood at about the same height as Sage. Her long jet-black hair hung all the way down to her waist and was kept in place by her red headband, matching her Gryffindor uniform. Her fairly dark skin, high cheekbones and icy blue eyes complimented her unique personality and made her one of a kind.

Rani had stood outside of Sage’s potions, flashing her usual enticing smile, while Sage approached her, pouting. Despite their physical differences, both girls were equally attractive in their own ways, with astonishing personalities; admirable to most, if not all, their fellow schoolmates.

Sage continued to walk towards until she reached her side and decided to place her palms over her face.

As if reading her best friend’s mind, she continued, “oh no, you bumped into him again didn’t you?”

Sage nodded, with her face still her palms. Rani heaved a big sigh, wrapped an arm over her best friend’s shoulder then began to lead her into the Great Hall.

“Wait, did you literally bumped into him?”

Sage nodded, feeling just as embarrassed as she was before. Rani broke out in giggles. It was only after they had entered the Great Hall did Sage look up. They sat across each other on the Gryffindor table, ready for dinner.

“I can’t believe I did it again,” Sage whined, “the first time was bad enough, but running into him again, for the fifth time and this time, having my book slam into his face, was just as bad as the first time!”

The meal had been conjured before them after the headmaster had given his acknowledgements of the various school activities and other happenings. Sage and Rani conversed throughout the night and occasionally falling back to Lucius Malfoy. Without a word, Rani began to observe her best friend as she continued her rant about Lucius. However, despite her rant, Sage unknowingly revealed an occasional grin whenever she’d look towards his direction at the Slytherin table.

Before her friend could stop, Rani had cut in, “hold on, you like this guy.”

“What?” Sage bellowed, “no, no of course not.”

Rani smirked as she looked at Sage square in the eye, while she was trying to avoid it. Rani lifted her eyebrow then slyly smiled.

“Ok! Ok!,” Sage admitted underneath her breath, “I do.”

“what? I’m sorry. I didn’t quite catch what you said.”

“I admit it, ok?” Sage repeated, “I li- like him, kinda.”

Rani broke out in laughter, “The way I see it, you got it bad.”

Once the evening came to a conclusion, Rani and Sage headed to the Gryffindor dormitory where they had been greeted by the evening silence of the common room.

“But he will never go for me,” Sage stated, “I mean look at me-”

“Exactly,” Rani assured, “look at you. You’re gorgeous. You are the epitome of beauty in this school. Every guy would keel over for you and every girl would kill to be you. How do you even know that he doesn’t enjoy bumping into you?”

“C’mon Rani, he couldn’t possibly like me. He’s a Slytherin. I’m obviously not close to being his type.”

The last of the Slytherin students had made their way up the two separate set of stairs, whichever led to their perspective dormitories, leaving Lucius the last prefect in the common room, or so he thought. As always the dimly lit common room, draped in dark green curtains and matching rugs and vases and elegantly decorated with complimenting furniture with a gothic chandelier hanging in the center, provided a type of gloomy solace that Lucius craved to soak in occasionally. Since their first night back, he had yet allowed himself to enjoy the silent solidarity of the Slytherin common room until tonight.

After the last student had fled up the stairs, Lucius relaxed himself on the grim green couch situated in front of the grand fireplace. He had absorbed his quiet environment into him until the silence had been broken.

“Hello Lucius.”

The voice had been all too familiar. How could he not recognize it as the voice had belonged to the person that he had worked so hard to avoid during the day?

“Narcissa”

She began to talk as she walked towards him while he continued to remain where he sat, using everything inside of him to try to drone out her presence and return to his formal state of relaxation. However, it all became impossible when she sat right next to him and rested her head of long icy blonde hair on his shoulder. To his annoyance, her hand began to travel at each opposite end of his shoulder, complementing them. He couldn’t imagine how he had craved for such attention from girls like Narcissa during his earlier years in Hogwarts. Now, he just wanted nothing more than to get away from it all.

“Maybe we should-”

Just as her hands started to hint that she intended to bring further down south from his shoulders, Lucius quickly got to his feet, keeping his straight, cold composure and ended the conversation.

“I’ll be going to bed,” was all he could bring himself to say, “you should head on up, if you don’t want to get into trouble.”

Without hesitation he turned his back on her and headed towards the prefect’s chambers. His room seemed darker than the previous nights he had been at school. He turned on his bedside lamp and sat by the edge of his bed, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his shirt. His eyes had suddenly fallen on the shards of glass across his room.

How could he have forgotten?

He forced himself up and pushed himself to walk towards it, to pick up the golden- plated frame. As he held it in his palms, he couldn’t help but to stare at his only proof that his mother had existed; to her only final memory. He lay on the bed, closing his eyes, placing the picture on his chest and allowed the sorrow and the grip of exhaustion pull him in. As the vision of his mother began to fade away, another vision began to surface.